[Vision2020] Yet, Another Fantasy From My Youth Gone . . .

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (January 4, 2011) Spokesman-Review.

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‘Forbidden Planet’ actress Anne Francis, 80, dies
Role in ‘Honey West’ earned Emmy nomination

LOS ANGELES – Actress Anne Francis, who was the love interest in the 1950s
science-fiction classic “Forbidden Planet” and later was a sexy private
eye in “Honey West” on TV, has died at age 80.

Francis died Sunday at a Santa Barbara nursing home.

Francis, who had surgery and chemotherapy after being diagnosed with lung
cancer in 2007, died of complications of pancreatic cancer, her daughter,
Jane Uemura, told the Los Angeles Times.

Francis, a stunningly beautiful blonde with a prominent beauty mark,
appeared opposite such stars as Spencer Tracy, Paul Newman, Robert Taylor
and Glenn Ford in some of the most popular films of the 1950s. But
“Forbidden Planet” and “Honey West” made her reputation.

“Forbidden Planet” was hailed in Leonard Maltin’s “2006 Movie Guide” as
“one of the most ambitious and intelligent films of its genre.”

A science-fiction retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” the 1956 film
had Leslie Nielsen and other space travelers visiting a planet where
expatriate scientist Walter Pidgeon, his daughter (Francis) and their
helper, Robby the Robot, built a settlement.

Before filming began, the actors held a meeting and agreed “to be as
serious about this film as we could be,” Francis said in a 1999 interview.

“We could have hammed it up, but we wanted to be as sincere as we could,”
she said.

In “Honey West,” which aired from 1965 to 1966, Francis’ private detective
character – who kept a pet ocelot, a wildcat – was a female James Bond:
sexy, stylish and as good with martial arts as she was with a gun.

She was nominated for an Emmy for the role, which lasted 30 episodes.

“A lot of people speak to me about Honey West,” Francis recalled. “The
character made young women think there was more they could reach for. It
encouraged a lot of people.”

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Who can forget . . .

"Honey West"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcLbPTT7o3w

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Rest well, Anne.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown